The United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is questioning Mastercard Inc.’s planned $920 million acquisition of London-based VocaLink Holdings Ltd., a deal which if consummated would give Mastercard a strong presence in several non-card payment systems, including the Faster Payments initiative in the United States. VocaLink operates Bacs, the U.K.’s …

It’s been said for years, but 2017 finally could be the year for mobile payments, according to Chetan Sharma, a prominent consultant in the mobile-technology space. “Fueled by demonetization in India and the rise of viable mobile-payment solutions worldwide, we expect mobile payments to enter the consumer consciousness in a …

The Federal Reserve’s recently released 2016 Payments Study shows that counterfeiting was the biggest type of U.S. card fraud last year. But other types of fraud, especially card-not-present fraud, are rising quickly, thanks in part to the coming of EMV chip cards and the aftereffects of data breaches. The Fed study says counterfeit fraudaccounted …

Visa Inc. says its U.S. EMV credit and debit card volume surpassed 800 million transactions in November, more than quadruple the chip volume from a year earlier. November’s transactions on EMV chip cards hit 805.9 million versus 175.6 million in November 2015, a month after the general-purpose card networks’ EMV point-of-sale liability …

The Federal Reserve released its latest triennial payments study Thursday morning, and it reports that the number of U.S. non-cash payments totaled 144 billion in 2015, up 5.3% annually from 2012. Debit and credit cards led in growth, while the automated clearing house network “grew modestly,” the Fed said. The …

ATM deployers reporting a “general increase” in physical and fraudulent attacks on their machines declined to 42% this year from 51% in 2015, according to new data from the ATM Industry Association. While that overall finding was good news, skimming, PIN compromises, malware, and other types of fraud-related attacks on ATMs remain …

A new report by The Pew Charitable Trusts says a minority of “financially vulnerable” consumers generate most overdraft fee revenue for banks, and it calls for bank regulators to put stricter controls on the controversial fee. The report uses data from the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, more than 40 banks, and …

After an active 2015 in which such prominent payments-industry firms as processor First Data Corp. and merchant acquirer Square Inc. completed initial public offerings of stock, 2016 saw little IPO activity by payment firms. But 2017 could be a different story, according to an analyst. The most notable new U.S. …

Alphabet Inc.’s Google unit has updated its Google Wallet to enable the person-to-person payments service to work on desktop computers and laptops using any browser. Google Wallet dates back to 2011 as a mobile-payments and P2P service, but in September 2015 Alphabet transferred the purchasing functionality to its Android Pay …

Tougher security vetting by high-end luxury goods retailers has online fraudsters moving downscale to the still-profitable mid-price range, and crooks also are targeting refurbished consumer electronics, according to new findings from security technology firm Forter Inc. Forter, which has offices in San Francisco and Tel Aviv, Israel, this week released …